I'm not bitter but....

Quite a few years ago I had the pleasure of working at the Daily Telegraph, and it was a pleasure and a great experience, in their smart new offices at South Quay Plaza, near Canary Wharf in London. Now I'm not saying I did badly out of the job I held there for nearly six years, when in my twenties; it was the 1980s after all! It was in the days of Maggie Thatcher and big city bonuses, big bang etc. Max Hastings was the, excellent, editor and, the now infamous, Conrad Black was the then owner of the group. Mr. Black was a big player in the media field already by that time, but, make no mistake about it, The Telegraph was his jewel in the crown. Unfortunately, it turned out, he was the Telegraph's thorn in its side! It's easy with hindsight, but the signs of his astounding greed were there even back in the late 80s. I remember in those early days, being a junior in the company, having to park anywhere I could close by, which usually meant a builders site on the rapidly developing London Docklands. Mr. Black of course had a space next to the main door to the prestigious building, a building which he had apparently acquired on the cheap due to his friendship with fellow Canadian Tycoons, the Reichman brothers, who financed and pioneered Canary Wharf's regeneration. Not only that, but his car was no ordinary car. Not for Conrad Black a Granada Ghia or even Jaguar Sovereign, oh no. Not even an ordinary Bentley Continental or Roller would have done for him. Mr. Black was chaffeured to the office in a 1930's vintage Bentley convertible, presumably a company car. I thought that was a clear sign at the time of his dillusional grandeur but even I did not have a clue as to the extent of his abuse of company funds. Now I must admit that I did have the odd exquisite meal or two in some very nice London restaurants but that seems like Joe's Greasy Spoon and Cafe when I read the reports today of how it is emerging Mr. Black's abuse of the company's money, knew no bounds. It really did make me chuckle out loud when I read the extract from the prosecution's cross examination of Black's representative in court today when it was revealed that he had aquired a shaving basin, which had belonged to Napoleon during his Russian campaign, which he claimed to be "necessary expenditure" to make his New York apartment "habitable." Can you believe the avarice of people like this who really do think that they can rule the world and be above the law, while most of us do an honest day's toil for merely a decent wage. But I'm not bitter....